StoriesBack to Stories


Reflecting on the Bosnian War

Bosnia 3

On Saturday, April 27, 2013, YES Abroad students in Bosnia and Herzegovina visited the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial. The center is officially known as the Srebrenica-Poto?ari Memorial and Cemetery for the Victims of the 1995 Genocide. It was set up to honor the 8,372 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide by Bosnian Serbs of Bosnian Muslims and Croats.
 
YES Abroad participant Emma Goldrick wrote the following reflection on her visit to the center:

In the summer of 1995, refugees from Srebrenica and the surrounding areas came to the former car battery plant in Poto?ari seeking assistance from UN forces, which were based there. Lacking a mandate to use physical force, the UN was then unable to defend the refugees with the Bosnian Serbs came for them. In a remaining warehouse today, there are two darkened exhibition rooms—one with a gut-wrenching documentary and the other with personal stories of victims. On the walls there are pictures, maps, and texts about the massacre and the other events of the war in Eastern Bosnia.

I think the most interesting part of the visit was learning about the war in a completely different part of Bosnia. So much of my knowledge about the War comes from Sarajevo’s siege, but this trip made me reevaluate and expand my view of just how widespread and devastating the conflict was. I’m glad I came to Srebrenica after living here for eight months. It felt extremely personal and greatly enhanced my understanding of events. The stories from the film and written on placards weren’t just a stranger’s horrific tale—I felt as if those people could’ve been my neighbors, friends, or even family here. The women weeping over their husbands and sons and brothers wasn’t foreign and strange sounding like it would’ve been before I arrived; instead it sounded like the cries of my own host mother on the anniversary of my host father’s death.